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PRESENTI-:n BY 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



ADDRESSES 



O 7 ^ 



DELIVERED IN COMMEMORATION OF MARKING 
THE SPOTS 



Connected with the Early Religious 
Life of Lebanon 



May 20, 1908 






Free Press Office, Lebanon, N. H. 






J 

Contents 



1. Introduction, Page 5 

2. First Marker, (Illustration) - - - Page 9 

3. Address of Welcome, ... - Page 11 

4. Religious Conditions of New 

Hampshire, 1750-1800, Page 15 

5. Historic Sketch of Early Life of Lebanon, 

its First Church and Pastor, 1761-1817, Page 39 

6. Second Marker, (Illustration) - - Page 51 

7. The Nev/ England Church on the Hill, - Page 53 

8. Historic Spots as Reminders, - - Page 63 

9. The Layman's Part in Church Building, Page 71 



Sntrobuction 




jURING the spring of 1907 it was my privilege 
to spend several afternoons in the delightful 
company of Mr, Solon A. Peck, one of Leb- 
anon's most honored citizens, in search of 
historical data. Among the many places visited are two 
spots of unusual significance, one is on the highway 
adjoining the N. S. Johnson place on South Main Street, 
West Lebanon. As far as historical knowledge and tradi- 
tion can aid us it was on this spot, on the east bank of 
the Connecticut river, where the first congregations in 
Lebanon assembled for Christian worship and religious 
ceremonies. What Plymouth Rock signifies to all New 
England, in a restricted and yet as real and important a 
sense, that spot of earth should be a shrine for all inhabi- 
tants of the town of Lebanon. The grantees of the char- 
ter, the original proprietors and the early pioneers from 
1761 to 1772, when want and poverty stared them in the 
face, in the midst of constant peril and dangers of the 
Indians, and the beasts of the forests, those first settlers 
assembled on that spot to acknowledge and worship God 
before permanent homes were built or the school and 
church appeared. That is a memory to be made sacred 
and worthy of perpetuity. 

Another spot of unusual interest is a portion of the 
field, west of the Alden place, on land formerly owned 
by Elijah Kimball. Here the first meeting house was 
erected in 1772 and stood for twenty years. The history 
of those twenty years is full of interest and instruction. 
Because of the historic associations and blessed mem- 
ories that naturally cluster around these two spots, sev- 
eral of the families born and bred in Lebanon thought it 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



fitting and right that in some way these spots should be 
marked. Mr. Peck was deeply concerned about this and 
was ready to do his part of the work. But his health had 
been gradually failing and before the end of the year 
1907 he passed away. His upright character and his 
memory became a source of inspiration to me. In the 
spring of 1908, article sixteen was prepared for the 
warrant of the town meeting: "To see if the town will 
appropriate the sum of fifty dollars for the erection of 
two substantial markers, one on the spot where the first 
religious meetings were held in town, and the other on 
the^'spot where the first meeting house stood, or act 
thereon." The citizens voted the above sum to be raised 
for that purpose. Previous to this, several private sub- 
scriptions were received and the families solicited gener- 
ously responded. Thanks are due these persons and 
others who have made the appearance of this volume 
possible. Necessary expenses have been willingly met. 
During the sessions of the General Association of 
Congregational churches of New Hampshire, which was 
to meet in Lebanon, May 19-21, the committee on ar- 
rangements planned commemorative services of local 
intel-est. The markers with proper inscriptions were set 
in place during the first week of May. A special train 
well filled with passengers, run from Lebanon to West 
Lebanon on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 20. 
Special services were held on the two historic spots. 
Automobiles and carriages were used for transportation. 
Rev. Edward L. Gulick presided at each service. 

The order of exercises was as follows: Outdoor ser- 
vice at the place where the first religious gatherings were 
held in town from 1761 to 1772. Address of welcome, 
Mr. Charles S. Ford, chairman of Board of Selectmen; 
Address, Religious Conditions in New Hampshire during 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



the period 1750 to 1800, Rev. Lucius H. Thayer, Ports- 
mouth; Address, Historic Sketch of Early Life of Leba- 
non, its first church and pastor, 1761 to 1817, Rev. John 
E. Whitley, Lebanon. An outdoor service at the place 
where the first meeting house stood from 1772 to 1792: 
Address, The New England Church on the Hill, Rev. 
Roy B. Guild, Boston, Mass.; Address, Historic Spots 
as Reminders, Rev. Cyrus Richardson, D. D., Nashua; 
Address, The Layman's Part in Church Building, Mr. 
William S. Carter, Lebanon. 

Each address was carefully prepared and now appears 
in printed form to become a ready reference, to perpetu- 
ate the sterling qualities of the first settlers of this re- 
gion, and to be a source of inspiration to the present 
generation of young people, so that by reading carefully 
these pages, the youth may catch the spirit of religious 
fervor, which animated the forefathers and thus be fully 
equipped to transmit by^ spiritual succession the abiding 
realities of the religious life, faith and stewardship and 
sacrifice, even amid the changing conditions of the 
twentieth century. 

"God of our fathers, be with us yet 
Lest we forget, lest we forget." 

JOHN E. WHITLEY, 

Chairman of Committee. 
Lebanon, N. H., July, 1908. 



THIS M/^dxKS iKiisror 
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B^ETCTEO IS08 




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by charles s. ford, chairman. board of selectmen, 

delivered may 20, iqos, at the spot where 

the first religious gatherings 

were held in town. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

One hundred and fifty years ago, these hills and 
valleys overlooking and bordering the Mascoma and Con- 
necticut rivers, and which so many of us assembled here 
today, call home, was a pathless wilderness inhabited 
only by wild beasts and savage men: for to the north 
in Canada were the French; to the eastward were the 
small settlements at Dover and Portsmouth; to the 
west, beyond the Green Mountains, were the colonists of 
New York, and to the South at the mouth of the "Great 
River," were the people of Connecticut. About this time 
the stirring and enterprising people of Connecticut, 
hearing of the great advantages of the country through 
the accounts of explorers, began to push up the river, 
and here and there establish settlements in the fertile 
valley to the north, and finally a few men with their 
families reached this place and decided to make it their 
future home. I am sure that none of us realize the 
courage and firmness that were displayed by the men and 
women who settled here in the dense woods in those 
early times. They were compelled to rely wholly upon 
themselves for everything. They had to clear the land 
of heavy timber before they could raise a crop. They 
were obliged to brave the rigor of the terrible northern 
winter in log cabins with few of the comforts of civil- 
ized life, even of that period, and they had to fight wild 
beasts and the intangible, but no less real enemies of 



12 MARKING THE SPOTS 

loneliness and despair. No wonder that in those first 
years, they many times thought of their old homes down 
the river, and their friends and relatives there. And so 
they named the place Lebanon, from their old home in 
Lebanon, Connecticut. 

I have said that they had to rely upon themselves. 
In these times, if men make new homes anywhere, 
they do it with the consciousness that if the crops fail^ 
if misfortune of any kind overtakes them, there are 
large and wealthy communities within reasonable dis- 
tances, who will compassionate their miseries and relieve 
their distress. But to whom could our forefathers who 
settled here and laid the foundations, look for comfort, 
aid and support? Not to the people of Canada, they 
were their bitter enemies, for France and England were 
at war. Not to the Indians, for they were the allies of 
the French and far more to be dreaded than they, for 
they were merciless, and to fall into their hands meant 
captivity, and death with cruel torture. Not to the 
Dutch of New York, for they were of an alien race and 
far away. Not to their friends in Connecticut, for at 
that time they were few in numbers and poor in this 
world's goods. But those men were of the Puritan stock, 
and when they settled in this wilderness and realized 
their weakness and need of help, they looked to the 
Eternal God. 

And so my friends we have assembled here today to 
commemorate the one hundred and fortieth anniversary 
of the Lebanon church at the places where the first re- 
ligious meetings were held, and where the first meeting 
house stood. What a great change has taken place since 
our great grandfathers met to worship here. The same 
sun shines upon us that shone upon them; the hills and 
the valleys are still here, our beautiful Connecticut with 



MARKING THE SPOTS 13 

her tributary, the Mascoma, sparkle and ripple as they 
sweep onward to the sea. But all else has changed, the 
great forests are gone, the wild beasts and the Red Men 
have disappeared, and the air that then only echoed to 
the sounds of nature, hums with the manifold vibrations 
of our modern civilization. Those men and women 
acted well their part in their day and generation. They 
were not perfect, they had the faults of their time. 
We know that they were intolerant and would not concede 
that others might be right that differed with them. But 
we are so ourselves, sometimes, and when those that 
come after us read of our doings in the records of the 
town, perhaps our disputes and disagreements may seem 
as trivial and foolish to them, as those of our ancestors 
do to us. 

Isaiah Potter, the faithful pastor, with all the mem- 
bers of his congregation, are sleeping the last sleep, and 
it behooves us to uphold the cause of religion and right- 
eousness in our day, as zealously as they did in theirs. 

My friends, I shall not weary you with extended re- 
marks. There are eloquent speakers who will follow me, 
and who will entertain and instruct you, something which 
I cannot hope to do. As most of you know, the preach- 
ers of the olden times were in the habit of preaching 
very long sermons, and Priest Potter, as he was formerly 
called, had this failing, his sermons would extend to 
fifteenthly and sixteenthly many times. And tradition 
says that he was not popular with all of the younger 
members of his flock on this account. And when the 
news spread over the town that the good man was dead, 
a little girl who had been compelled to sit through the 
delivery of some of those sermons, spoke up and said» 
"Good! We shan't have to go to meeting any more." 

And so I will close by extending to you all hearty 



14 MARKING THE SPOTS 

welcome to Lebanon. May your visit be pleasant and 
linger long in your memories. And I assure you that we 
shall feel, long after you have departed to your homes, 
inspiration and encouragement for the work of the future, 
by meeting with you and commemorating the events of 
the past. 



Wi)t iKveltsiottS Conbitionsi of i8tcto 
1750 to 1800 



BY LUCIUS HARRISON THAYER, MINISTER OF THE NORTH 
CHURCH, PORTSMOUTH, DELIVERED MAY 20, I9O8, 
AT THE SPOT WHERE THE FIRST RE- 
LIGIOUS GATHERINGS WERE 
HELD IN TOWN, 

The last half of the eighteenth century was a period 
of greater change and wider significance than any other 
in the history of New Hampshire. It was a period of ex- 
pansion and growth; of tumult and confusion; of conten- 
tion of forces within and forces without. It was the age 
of storm and stress, in which the community was passing 
from the restraint and tutelage of its colonial childhood, 
and through all the growing pains and searching tempta- 
tions of youth was developing into a well-ordered and 
responsible body politic. It was a time of assurance and 
self-assertion; of questioning and doubt; of arrogance and 
presumption; a time when new powers and capacities 
were disclosing themselves, a time of wild adventure and 
reckless daring; but withal a time of true self-discovery 
and of loyal obedience to a heavenly vision. There were 
elements of this experience of which we cannot be proud, 
but these were natural if not inevitable. On the whole 
the period was notable for its self-restraint, splendid in 
its heroism, and glorious in its consecration. For the 
achievement of that half century we should be profoundly 
thankful. 



i6 MARKING THE SPOTS 

STIRRING POLITICAL EVENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE. 

The French and Indian war, which vexed the borders 
of New Hampshire from 1754 to 1763, and to which she 
sent 3,100 men; the Revolutionary struggle which called 
12,000 of her sons into the field; the maintenance of a 
provisional government in state and nation; the preserva- 
tion of her territory in the struggle with Vermont; the 
strife incident upon becoming an integral part of the new 
nation; these formed a series of events of absorbing in- 
terest and unparalled importance. Industrial develop- 
ment was retarded during much of the half-century; and, 
since during the periods of peace crowding settlers were 
clearing fields and building houses, it was natural that the 
interests of religion and education should not flourish. 

The temper of the times, which was one of contro- 
versy and contention, was sure to be in evidence in the 
religious activities. The practical extension of the prin- 
ciple of liberty in the political order was attended with 
freedom of inquiry, with revolt against constituted author- 
ity, with the breaking down of long-established customs, 
and with a new sense of personal importance on the part 
of the ordinary citizen. It was inevitable that some men 
should challenge the rights of the standing order in 
religion, and claim freedom to be guided in their spiritual 
interests by their own inclinations and prejudices. 

THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT. 

In 1750, New Hampshire was a royal province, under 
Gov. Benning Wentworth, who was in many ways an ex- 
cellent chief magistrate. He was closely attached to the 
interests of the Church of England. In every township 
granted, he reserved a share for the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, as well as a share for himself. 
He refused to grant the petition of the Piscataqua minis- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 17 

ters for a charter for a university, unless it were to be 
controlled by the Bishop of London. John Wentworth, 
who followed his uncle from 1768 until the outbreak of 
the Revolution, was a sincere Christian gentleman of dis- 
tinction and charm. He won all classes to himself. He 
divided the province into five counties named after 
English friends. He built a great estate at Wolfeboro. 
He gave the land on which Dartmouth College is built, 
and more than any other man secured its future, by great 
grants of land. But a new day was at hand, a day which 
even the popularity of John Wentworth could not pre- 
vent. The oligarchy of Portsmouth was to be supersed- 
ed. A new leadership was to appear. The plain people 
were to wage a war. Though many other New Hamp- 
shire men of education would be neutral, or on the Tory 
side, the ministers would not fail their people. 

POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION, 

At the middle of the eighteenth century, there were 
30,000 people in New Hampshire, living in thirty-four 
incorporated towns, and a few scattered settlements. In 
1775, the inhabitants had increased to 90,000, one-half of 
whom lived in Rockingham County, then extending be- 
yond Concord. In 1790, the state had a population of 
141,885 and one hundred seventy-two incorporated town- 
ships. At the end of the century, the population was 
183,858, having doubled in twenty-five years, Portsmouth 
increased from 4,590 in 1775 to 5,339 in 1800. London- 
derry, for a long period the second town in size, main- 
tained itself at about 2,600. Exeter and Epping remained 
stationary with about 1,700 inhabitants. Chester grew 
from 1,599 to 1,902. In i8co, Concord was a pleasant 
village of 2,052, having grown from 350 in fifty years. 
Between 1775 and 1800, Dover had increased in popula- 



i8 MARKING THE SPOTS 

tion from 1,666 to 2,062; Rochester from 1,518 to 2,018; 
Barrington from 1,655 ^o 2,470; while Sanbornton, settled 
as late as 1,770, had become a good town of 2,695; ^"^i 
Gilmanton, settled in 1763, had become the second larg- 
est town in the state, with 3,752 people dwelling in a 
highly developed community with the finest religious 
traditions. 

Amherst, settled in 1741, was the leading town in 
Hillsboro County, having 2,369 inhabitants in 1800, while 
Hopkinton, Hollis and New Ipswich were good towns, 
having grown rapidly in the early period. In Cheshire 
County, Westmoreland and Chesterfield were the large 
towns, with over 2,000 people in each. Claremont in the 
last quarter century grew from 523 to 1,435; ^^^ Keene 
from 756 to 1,645. ^" Grafton County in the same period, 
Hanover increased from 434 to 1,902, and Lebanon from 
347 to 2,000. These figures in themselves are not inter- 
esting, but they bring before us as nothing else can the 
relative size and the comparative growth of New Hamp- 
shire communities during the period under consideration. 

THE COLONIAL CAPITAL. 

In 1750, the settlements near the coast, with their 
long-established churches and other evidences of a settled 
community life, were well started on their second century, 
Portsmouth, during all the half-century, was character- 
ized by a more elegant social life than any town in New 
England. The private chariots, liveried footmen, elegant 
amusements and handsome entertainments were particu- 
larly associated with a group of gentry who were attached 
to the provincial oligarchy. They patronized the Church 
of England, and in their habits of leisure, in their apparel 
and manners, they were reminiscent of the English Court. 
But the vigorous leadership which displaced this old- 



MARKING THE SPOTS tq 

fashioned splendor and which worshipped largely in 
Puritan churches, maintained and developed the traditions 
of a refined social life. At the end of the century, there 
were in Portsmouth many families of cultivation and 
many fine houses richly furnished, which were the centers 
of a generous hospitality. The evils which were attend- 
ant upon a gay life were existent. Gaming was more 
common and respectable than now, and gentlemen's 
private clubs of a convivial nature existed. Yet the 
Portsmouth men of political and social leadership and 
those prominent in the professions and in business were 
largely associated with the churches. Of more than one 
it is written: "He was a professor of religion and zeal- 
ously attached to the church of which he was a member." 
And of John Langdon, a great servant of the church and 
state, it is added: "He cultivated an acquaintance with 
good and pious men of all denominations." With such 
leading citizens the ministers of the tovvn associated as 
equals, standing shoulder to shoulder in the service of the 
community, and often sitting side by side at the festal 
board. These clergymen were the peers of their lay 
friends. Dr. Haven was for fifty-two years the erudite 
and liberal pastor of the South Parish. The ministers in 
the North Parish were Samuel Langdon, called to the 
presidency of Harvard College in 1774; Ezra Stiles, the 
scholar of the period, who followed Langdon and was 
called to the presidency of Yale in 1778; and Joseph 
Buckminister, whose pastorate of thirty-three years had a 
distinction and a beauty rarely surpassed. These were 
men of native simplicity, spiritual passion and great de- 
votion, as well as men of power, and they addressed large 
congregations with authority. 

OTHER PARTS OF OLD ROCKINGHAM. 

Many of the ministers of this older reign were "men 



20 MARKING THE SPOTS 

of prominence in pulpit, in council, and in the various 
walks of private duty." "Sufificient each of himself to give 
a name and character to the town which enjoyed his 
services." Dr. Belknap, the historian, was at Dover. 
The opulent James Pike, of evangelistic temper, moulded 
Somersworth for sixty years. Amos Main and Joseph 
Haven were helping to build the frontier town of Roches- 
ter. Ebenezer Thayer was at Hampton, and Elihu 
Thayer, of missionary zeal, was at Kingston. Yet under 
the leadership of such men the membership of the 
churches was small, and religion apparently less vital 
than in some later decades. 

The settlement of the younger Odlin at Exeter, in 
1743, resulted in the formation of a second church, by the 
friends of the great revival, who felt that the majority of 
the old church by its action gave evidence of fixed oppo- 
sition to the work of God. Exeter became the capital of 
the state in 1775, and so remained for fifteen years. This 
gave the town an unusual number of prominent residents. 
Of these it is recorded that "they were not generally 
church members, and some were a little loose in their 
lives, as well as skeptical in their theories. Some of the 
most interesting people intellectually, apparently were 
patriotic, high-bred, sometimes a little convivial, but 
spiritually nonentities." 

Among the prominent politicians was Judge Paine 
Wingate, for eight years minister at Hampton Falls, 
whose rigid orthodoxy, rumor says, relaxed materially; 
and Gov. William Plummer, of Epping, who began life as 
a Baptist evangelist, but who during his distinguished 
career became a radical in religion and a warm champion 
of a constitution that guaranteed religious equality. 

THE OLD FRONTIER AND THE INDIAN WAR. 

In 1726, a brave and godly people, sifted from the 



MARKING THE SPOTS 21 

best stock of Essex County, began a settlement far up 
the Merrimac in the Indian region of Penacook. In 
1730, they settled Timothy Walker, who remained their 
pastor for fifty-two years. He was a moderate Calvinist. 
He helped keep the Indians out of the settlement, and 
unaided, kept the "New Lights" out of his pulpit. The 
Massachusetts sponsors christened the town Rumford, 
but when Mr. Walker's three trips to England had saved 
the homes of his people from the Bow Proprietors, New 
Hampshire, at the end of all the conflicts, gave the town 
the new name of Concord. There, in the midst of a 
united people, religion flourished, and the church grew 
strong in such ways as a halfway covenant church might. 
While the people of Concord succeeded in establish- 
ing themselves on the frontier, other intrepid and pious 
people, who began settlements about the same time, had 
their homes destroyed, and their meeting houses burned. 
Keene, Swanzey, Winchester, Peterboro, Hillsboro and 
Hopkinton were abandoned after substantial beginnings 
had been made, and other towns, as Walpole and Charles- 
town, were sorely vexed by savages. From Crown Point 
Indian marauders were dispatched by the French to rav- 
age the border. It is said that Jesuit priests were not 
averse to the capture of Puritan offspring, who might be 
converted to the old religion. These experiences culmi- 
nated in the French and Indian war. This was the time 
of romance and tragedy in the frontier towns. It was 
the time of John Stark and of Roger's Rangers. 

THE GREAT MIGRATION. 

After the fall of Montreal in 1760, the waiting people 
pushed up the Merrimac and the Connecticut valleys, 
along all ways, to possess the land. Settlements multi- 
plied, scores of grants were made and many towns were 



22 MARKING THE SPOTS 

incorporated. The new-comers took up the land in the 
region of the Great Lake on the east, and on the west the 
home-seekers pushed on as far as Lancaster. 

Many came from Massachusetts, but the much larger 
and more influential part of the migration was from 
Connecticut. It was the Connecticut people that brought 
the name of Lebanon with them and settled all the region 
round about us today. They were a hardy, brave folk, 
and tenacious of their principles. Many of them were of 
strong minds, good habits, correct principles and pos- 
sessed of a good common education. The great awaken- 
ing had been especially strong in the region which the 
emigrants left. They were under the influence of the 
Edwardean theology and of Whitefield's preaching. Thus 
the doctrinal beliefs and the spirit of revival of the older 
churches were transplanted into a new state. Such people 
and such influences, uniting in the settlement of towns, 
ensured the early establishment of the institutions of 
religious and a ready co-operation with the special provis- 
ions for the erection of places of worship and the settle- 
ment of ministers, contained in all grants, both those of 
the proprietors and those of provincial governments. 
This tide of immigration, after increasing the population 
three -fold, slackened during the Revolution, which was 
followed by another inflow that increased the earlier 
settlements and moved on to a new frontier. 

RESULTS OF THE MIGRATION. 

The general character of the earlier migration we 
have described. It was connected with a movement in 
theology that was reinterpreting Calvinism, and had 
traditions of evangelistic fervor. There was no antago- 
nism to the "New Light" preachers, but these people 
from the south had been accustomed to a well-trained and 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



intellectually competent ministry. They laid strong 
foundations that were full of promise for the state. How 
religion developed in these western communities, and 
what the moral and spiritual life was in detail will be set 
forth in the paper which is to follow, as it deals with the 
typical community of Lebanon. 

An immediate result of the great migration, and one 
of paramount importance for the higher life of New 
Hampshire, was the founding of Dartmouth College. 
Eleazur Wheelock, the first president, had shown his 
evangelistic temper by taking part in the revival preach- 
ing of the earlier period. He had proved his missionary 
purpose and educational interest through his service in 
Moor's Indian Charity School. By the removal of this 
school to Dresden, now Hanover, in 1770, and by the 
opening of courses for white )'0uth the province secured 
the collegiate school which the ministry of the old colony 
had failed to establish. The forty ministers sent out by 
Dartmouth to the towns of the state before 1800, became 
an influential factor in determining religious conditions. 

THE VERMONT CONTROVERSY, 

A less happy outcome of the new settlement was the 
jeopardizing of the integrity of New Hampshire's domain, 
and a long disturbance of the peace, which was inimical 
to spiritual growth and prosperity. The people of the 
new region had little in common with the old settlement, 
and intercourse and acquaintance was difficult to main- 
tain. The people on either side of the Connecticut river 
were of the same ancestry. They had lived as neighbors 
and friends, cherishing the same customs and traditions 
in homes which they had but recently left. The river 
seemed to them no natural boundary, rather it was a nat- 
ural feature that should bind in political union the kindred 



24 MARKING THE SPOTS 

who lived on either side. Thus the Vermont controversy 
grew up naturally enough, but to the consternation and 
chagrin of the older communities of the state. The luke- 
warmness of allegiance of the western towns resulted in a 
union of Vermont and western New Hampshire in the 
Cornish convention of 1778, and in the meeting of the Ver- 
mont legislature, at Charlestown in 1781, where forty-five 
towns of New Hampshire were represented. Men of Cornish 
and Lebanon and Hanover were prominent in this move- 
ment which came to a sudden end in 1782, through the 
good offices of President Washington. But a very un- 
happy state of society prevailed in towns where majorities 
had attempted to coerce minorities, which in turn sought 
the protection of New Hampshire. Party rage, high 
words, deep resentments were the effects of these clash- 
ing interests. Revolting towns did not return at once to 
a state of peace, and divisions and animosities existed for 
a long time. 

PRESBYTERIANISM. 

The standing order throughout the state during the 
period under consideration was Congregational, but Pres- 
byterianism played a more important part in the religious 
life of the time than is ordinarily recalled. Probably as a 
result of the transplanted consociationism of Connecticut, 
twelve or more churches of Vermont and New Hampshire, 
in this upper region, constituted the Grafton Presbytery, 
which, it is said. President Wheelock's influence organized 
in 1771, and to which Presbytery the Dartmouth College 
Church belonged. Some records, as in the case of the 
Croydon chuch, make a distinction between the "Presby- 
terian mode of discipline as practiced in the Church of 
Scotland, and the principles and practices of the Grafton 
Presbytery." These Grafton churches in time changed 



MARKING THE SPOTS 25 

their names and their manners, and have long been known 
as Congregational. 

Even the churches of lower Piscataqua were infected 
in 1785. At the suggestion of Dr. Haven, of the South 
Church, Portsmouth, the churches were called upon to 
answer the question : "May there not be some material 
alteration in our ecclesiastical polity, making nearer ap- 
proaches to the Presbyterian form, for the honor of Christ 
and the edification of the churches." The churches evi- 
dently negatived the proposition, though four of them 
appeared to have gone over to some form of Presbyterian- 
ism for a time. These were the South Church, Ports- 
mouth, and the churches in Dover, Kittery and Barrington. 

In some places, as Chester and Pembroke, Congrega- 
tional and Presbyterian churches existed together, natu- 
rally dividing communities; though we read in the records 
of one town : "During the above-named period we find 
nothing recorded of the Consociate church, but about fifty 
deaths, an unusual number for the time, — a solemn warn- 
ing, perhaps, to the people of God to cease from ecclesi- 
astical strife." In some communities, such as Hudson 
and Goffstown, strife between these two denominations 
existed to such an extent as to help unsettle the state of 
religion. 

A legitimate and competent Presbyterianism was es- 
tablished at Londonderry, where a colony from Scotland 
formed a church in 1735, and built up a thriving commu- 
nity. Strong denominational influences went out from 
this center; other people from Scotland came to the state, 
and at least nine regular Presbyterian churches were 
organized. Four such churches remain with us today. 

OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 

The original proprietors of Piscataqua and their re- 

« 



26 MARKING THE SPOTS 

tainers were Church of England men and royalists. The 
early worship was according to the usages of that church, 
but it came to an untimely end about 1642, at the hands 
of the incoming Puritans. In 1732, Queen's Chapel was 
built in Portsmouth, with help from England. In 1739, 
Arthur Brown was inducted as rector. Three-fourths of 
his salary was paid by the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Ports. He was an able man, con- 
siderate of the poor, and strongly attached to the cere- 
monies of his church. He died in 1773, but had no 
successor until after the Revolution. In spite of the 
ardent churchmanship of Benning VVentworth, his grants 
of land, and the English missionary mone}', only four 
Episcopal churches had been gathered by the end of the 
century. One was at Holderness, where the distinguished 
Samuel Livermore built his estate in 1774; one was the 
Cornish church, organized in 1793; the fourth was the 
church in Claremont, made up of Connecticut people and 
destined to be the progenitor of the only Roman Catholic 
Church of native stock in New England. 

Though Quaker women had been driven out of New 
Hampshire tied to the tail of a cart, yet those persistent 
and admirable people had established at least six meet- 
ings, one inland at Weare and the others in the older 
settlements near the coast. 

The Baptists, who had also been objects of suspicion 
and persecution, organized a church at Newton in 1750, 
and had gathered seventeen churches b}' the end of the 
century, having formed a State Association in 1785. 

The culmination of the contest between the old order, 
represented by the Congregational and Presbyterian 
Churches, and the development of denominational life 
now of great importance in the state, belongs to the be- 
ginning of the next century; but the period after the 



MARKING THE SPOTS 27 

Revolution marks the beginning of the rise of sects, and 
consequently it was a trying time for the guardians of the 
established faith. "Flaming sectarian exhorters" intruded 
themselves on the preserves of the settled ministers, 
weakened their churches, discredited their authorit)', and 
aroused their ho!)' wrath. 

One of Robert Sandeman's three American churches 
was organized in Portsmouth, in 1765. In the same city, 
in 1780, a Universalist Church was formed. Only four 
others came into existence by 1800, but there was a wide- 
spread proclamation and discussion of the doctrines of 
Universalism, variously held by its different opponents. 
Considerable interest in Universalism existed in the south- 
western part of the state, and the first general convention 
of the denomination was held at Winchester in 1796. 
Methodism had but one church in the state until 1800, 
the church in Chesterfield formed in 1794. Itinerant 
preachers had been moving through the state and were 
heard in Portsmouth as early as 1780. The religious 
chronicles of one town at a later period reads : "Method- 
ism made some progress and Orthodoxy had but a slight 
hold upon the people — with what effect on their eternal 
interests time will evince." The eternal status of those 
people has not been revealed as yet, but we are more 
hopeful of Methodism than was the early scribe. 

"THE FREE WILLERS." 

The most vital and widely influential religious move- 
ment in this period was that which resulted in the forma- 
tion of the Free Will Baptist denomination. The move- 
ment was led by a passionate and intrepid soul, and was 
utterly sincere. In agony of spirit and desiring to be 
taught of God, Benjamin Randall walked the rocks of 
New Castle, looking out upon the sea that he had sailed 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



as a fisherman. Neither the Congregational nor the Bap- 
tist fellowship satisfied him. He found no real welcome 
and response until he came to New Durham, where in 
1780 a church was formed, from which mighty tides of 
spiritual power went forth; and which mothered the hun- 
dreds of ardent confessors, dwelling in the region of the 
Great Lake. After a long period, and with reluctance, 
these confessors formed themselves into the seventeen 
Free Will churches that existed in 1801. This movement 
had some of the strange if not reprehensible features that 
appeared in the great religious revivals of the southwest; 
but in it all there was ample occasion for surprise and 
heart searching on the part of the regular ministry, as well 
as for the resentment and contempt to which they too 
often gave vent. Three groups of the early "Free-willers" 
were turned aside by the successors of Ann Lee, who left 
as a result of their work in this state the two Shaker com- 
munities, one at Enfield and one at Canterbury. 

A review of these other religious forces of the period 
makes it evident that the Congregational and Presbyterian 
churches, numbering 44 in 1750 and 138 in 1800, were the 
main sources of religious influence throughout the half- 
century. 

THEOLOGICAL TENDENCIES. 

In theology, as elsewhere, the period was one of 
development and change, attended with discussions, some 
of which were marked by sharpness, if not bitterness. 
The movement in religious thought took its rise from the 
Great Awakening, and doctrinal discussion has been said 
to be "the most permanent fruit of that event." It is not 
easy to differentiate the tendencies of thought, or to 
classify men under them. The conservative men, holding 
to the earlier type of theology, were known as Old Cal- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 29 

vinists, and were found widely scattered through the 
churches. The liberals, usually called "Arminians,"some 
of whom came to be known as "Arians," were of eastern 
Massachusetts. The Edwardeans, who under the pressure 
of liberalism were working out a modified Calvinism and 
were divided into several schools, were largely of western 
Massachusetts and Connecticut. The appellation "New 
Lights" survived as the designation of the friends of 
Whitefield. They became largely identified with the 
Edwardeans, In the earlier days many opposers of 
Whitefield, when called 'Arminians" retorted by calling the 
other party "Antinomians." All these theological tenden- 
cies may be discovered in the churches of New Hamp- 
shire at this time, and the ministers and people were not 
always able to see eye to eye. The name of Wheelock 
was a tower of strength to the orthodox in the new region 
of the West. Calvinism in some form, and New Light 
sympathies were strong among the people whose training 
and traditions were of Connecticut. The champions of 
Old Calvinism were found among the older settlements, 
usually having strong representation in the Presbyterian 
fields. Whitefield made three visits to lower eastern New 
Hampshire. He was given a hearing in both the Ports- 
mouth churches, but the Odlins, of Exeter, so op- 
posed him that a New Light church and preacher resulted. 
Ten ministers of the Piscataqua Association are on record 
as expressing themselves in favor of Whitefield, but others 
were bitter against him, and the omission of prominent 
names from the record makes it evident that the associa- 
tion as a body could not come to a conclusion. Among 
the ministers of the older settlements it is clear not only 
that there were men of Catholic temper, but also that 
there were a good many who are to be classed as Armin- 
ians. Among these are some of the older men, Timothy 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



Walker, Jeremy Belknap, Samuel Haven, Jeremiah Fogg 
and Benjamin Stevens. The movement of thought finally 
culminating in the division of the Congregational churches 
may be traced in New Hampshire, but as only four 
churches and two parishes took the Unitarian name, it is 
evident that an extreme liberalism was not widespread. 

CHARACTER OF THE MINISTRY 

In New Hampshire, as elsewhere, the censoriousness 
of Whitefield bore fruit that he must have regretted; and 
when we find the epithets, "Pharisees, Arminians, blind 
and unconverted," hurled at ministers, we need not al- 
ways take the terms seriously. Unhappily, there are a 
few records that speak of conditions more deplorable 
than doctrinal lapses. At the close of the century, under 
a man of superior and brilliant talents, but loose morality, 
Dover sadly deteriorated. Two successive Presbyterian 
ministers at Peterboro, both from Scotland, "were ortho- 
dox in sentiment, but reprehensible in conduct, and their 
pestilent examples brought a blight on religion;" and in 
more than one instance an otherwise fair reputation was 
destroyed and fair hopes were defeated by a growing 
habit of intemperance. But the body of ministers in this 
period were men of high character and exemplary lives. 
They possessed native good sense and sound judgment, 
and many of them were men of distinguished talents. 
Forty-eight of the fifty-two settled ministers in 1764, and 
nine-tenths of the 199 ministers from 1748 to 1800 were 
college graduates. Of the latter. Harvard furnished 102, 
Yale 19, and Dartmouth 40. Candidates for the ministry 
gave much of senior year in college to books of divinity, 
and then read divinity for a year with some pastor of 
repute. At least seven New Hampshire ministers of this 
period had more or less divinity students under their in- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



struclion. These pastors were Langdon of Hampton 
Falls, McClintock of Greenland, Wood of Boscawen, 
Thayer of Kingston, Harris of Dunbarton, Parsons of 
Rindge, and Smith of Gilmanton. It may be that this 
same careful training made these ministers less able to 
reach that large number of people, who, at the end of the 
century heard the itinerant sectarian preachers gladly. In 
any case, among such people a prejudice grew up against 
the "college-educated" man, and when Samuel Hidden 
was to be installed at Tamworth, one woman declared 
when she saw him coming that she "had as lief see the 
devil." But these strong and well-trained ministers had 
been evangels of liberty. They animated and held the 
people to their prolonged struggle with England. They 
"connected with an indissoluble bond the principles of 
civil government and the principles Christianity." They 
preached sermons in which religion and politics were 
closely united. Samuel McClintock of Greenland, with 
his ministerial bands, is the central figure in historical 
pictures of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Ministers like 
Samuel Langdon, Paine Wingate, and Abel Foster of Can- 
terbury, were worthy figures in state and national assem- 
blies, while many like Josiah Stevens of Epping, made 
pecuniary sacrifices for the cause. The very few ministers 
who failed to prove themselves friends of their country 
were driven from their pastorates. The people of Bed- 
ford voted regarding John Houston, who remained a 
Tory: "Therefore, we think it not our duty as men or 
Christians, to have him preach to us any longer as 
minister." 

CHURCH CUSTOMS. 

The ministers were thought to be settled for life, and 
though ministerial changes were frequent in a few towns, 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



yet, in spite of many occasions for contention, the pas- 
toral office was highly regarded. The average pastorate 
of the period was twenty-five years, and sixteen pastors 
of this period held ofifice for forty-five years or more. 
The ministers in the new towns were given a share of the 
land, and usually the new minister had a "settlement" of 
a substantial sum as well as his salary. The salaries 
ranged from sixty to one hundred pounds. Joseph Buck- 
minster in his wealthy parish never had over 1^700 a year. 
In the troubled times salaries were reckoned in commod- 
ity values. In those days the church in Londonderry 
appropriated 5,000 pounds for annual expenses, and Dr. 
McClure of North Hampton, one year, had a salary of 
;?i2,ooo. The ministers complained that "they prophesied 
in sack cloth." Mr. Shepperd, of Dublin, begged his 
people not to increase his salary as "it plagued him to 
death to collect what they had already agreed upon." 

In those days the meeting house was the important 
building of the town and served for civic as well as re- 
ligious gatherings. The location of the meeting house v/as 
always an important consideration, and often embroiled 
and divided communities. These buildings were usually 
centrally located, though a Raymond man once adver- 
tised: "Found, a stray meeting house in the woods." In 
the meeting houses there was preaching morning and 
afternoon on "Lord's day." The Lord's supper was ob- 
served once a month, or once in two months, sometimes 
being altogether omitted during winter. These services, 
together with the sacramental lecture, the quarterly and 
occasional fasts, and the catechising of children, made 
up the stated duties of the minister outside of his pas- 
toral visitation. The hymns, the prayer, and the sermon 
constituted the order of worship, which was usually long 
enough at that. The public reading of the scriptures be- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 33 

gan to be agitated at the end of the century. During the 
period "deaconing" of the hymns was abandoned, causing 
many heart-burnings and some lasting dissensions. 

STATE OF RELIGION. 

This review of religious conditions has disclosed 
something of the state of religion which accompanied 
these conditions. In the nation at large, following the 
French and Indian War, there was a perceptible relaxa- 
tion in morals, and religion suffered a serious decline. 
After the Revolution the state of morals and religion was 
lower than at any time in the nation's history. What was 
true of the nation was measurably true of New Hamp- 
shire. The agitation which preceded the war, the concen- 
tration of interest and effort in waging the war, the trou- 
blesome times of readjustment in government and in 
business, the lax habits of men returning from the army, 
were all detrimental to the upbuilding of the life of the 
Spirit. Scepticism and the so called French infidelity 
aopeared in New Hampshire, but while Congress dis- 
agreed with Franklin, who thought prayers for divine help 
necessary, we find that the New Hampshire legislature, 
of 1784, was opened with solemn services in the North 
Church at Portsmouth, and such continued to be the 
custom. 

The half-way covenant, which had generally prevailed 
in the churches, gradually fell into disuse. Under the 
best conditions the custom had bound the church and 
family life together, and built up a strong church interest, 
but there had been a failure in developing vital and expe- 
rimental religion. Men did not follow on into the full 
membership of the church, and while congregations were 
large, the real membership of the churches was surpris- 
ingly small. 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



After his first visit at Portsmouth, Whitefield records 
with evident dejection, that he was given "a polite audi- 
tory, but so very unconcerned that I began to question 
whether I had been speaking to rational or brute creat- 
ures." Dr. Shurtleff, of the South Church, describes a 
se;3Son of revival that came soon after, and even "Ports- 
mouth, where politics and pleasure divided the heart of 
the people," had its religious life greatly reinforced just 
before 1750. Perhaps as an after result, when the two old 
churches grew cold there was formed the Independent 
Congregational Church, in 1761. This was after the type 
of those strict churches founded in Connecticut, usually 
by persons of humble circumstances, who warm-hearted 
and spiritually-minded, cared not for an educated minis- 
try. This church under two devout and excellent men 
lived on through the century and bore many marks of the 
simple New Testament church life. 

Nearly all of New England east of the Berkshires and 
the Green Mountains was exempt from revival influences 
from 1745 to 1800, and we read that there were less than ten 
revival ministers in New Hampshire when Isaiah Potter 
was settled at Lebanon. Dartmouth College and the re- 
gion for twenty miles around had seasons of revival be- 
tween 1771 and 1788. Hollis, Plymouth, a child of Mollis, 
and the vicinity of New Ipswich report one or more sea- 
sons of refreshing the latter part of the century. Un- 
happy contentions and dissensions sprung up in not a few 
religious communities which made it impossible for them 
to grow in love to God and man. These troubles had 
their origin in political and doctrinal prejudices, in neigh- 
borhood jealousies, in an intense individualism, and in the 
revolt against the standing order. The Constitution of 
1784 provided, "that every individual has a natural and 
inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates 



MARKING THE SPOTS 35 

of his own conscience and reason," but because this right 
was confined to Christians, and because the churches were 
still supported by taxation, there was too little practical 
toleration to guarantee peace. 

STATE OF EDUCATION. 

Education, the handmaid of religion, languished in 
the half-century. "There was a great and criminal neglect 
on the part of towns in complying with the law providing 
for the general education of the people. During the war, 
many towns large and opulent and far removed from any 
danger of the enemy, were for a large part of the time 
destitute of any public school." These facts may bear a 
causal relationship to some religious tendencies that ap- 
peared in the last years of the century. Certainly the 
neglect of education boded no good to that type of reli- 
gious life which believed that the church and the school 
house should stand side by side. 

About 1770, Simeon Williams opened a private school 
at Windham, which had an enrollment of forty or fifty 
pupils, and which became a feeder for Dartmouth. 
Exeter was not founded until 1781, and to this seven other 
academies were added in the last decade of the century, a 
fact full of promise for a better future. 

STATE OF MORALS. 

The state of morals at this time made it evident that 
a better future was needed. While slaver)' was disappear- 
mg, many aspects of social life and expression were rude 
and harsh enough, and very little of the compassion of 
Christ was visited upon the unfortunate or the criminal. 

Intemperance was one of the greatest faults of the 
period, especially in the neighborhood of the Piscataqua, 
and on the old frontier, where lumbering was the princi- 



36 MARKING THE SPOTS 



pal industry. The drinking habits of all classes, the 
ministry included, hung like a dead-weight on the churches, 
and ordinations were often seasons of copious drinking. 
We have it on the highest authority that a free indulgence 
in gaming, excessive drinking, and such like dissipations 
endangered the careers of the bright men up and down 
the western river, as well as the careers of the men of the 
older settlement. Extreme lawlessness, attended with 
malicious destruction of private and public property is 
recorded of some places near the close of the century. 
Yet public virtue triumphed in the face of all assaults 
made upon it, and the virtuous were so numerous that 
they provided a sure channel through which the honora- 
ble traditions and the spiritual treasures of the past moved 
on to nourish a generation whose public service was to be 
less difficult, and whose religious life was more evident 
and probably more real. 

THE GOOD OLD TIMES. 

Did the years we have been considering constitute 
the period of the good old times in New Hampshire? To 
us gathered here today those times appear strange and 
remote enough. In its intense activity, in its fortitude 
and expectanc)' that half century was a good time. In 
that an undaunted fatherhood and an abounding and sac- 
rificial motherhood established this commonwealth on her 
hills and in her valleys, it was a good time. In that men 
and women obeyed to go out unto a place that they 
should receive as an inheritance, and went out not know- 
ing whither they went, it was a good time. In that they 
laid broad foundations and endured as beholding the in- 
visible; in that they greeted the better future from afar 
and sacrificed for it, it was a good time. But God hath 
"provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from 



MARKING THE SPOTS 37 

us they should not be made perfect." Today, on my part, 
I recall with reverence the notable men of the ancient 
Piscataqua region. I unite with you who represent the 
upper part of old Strafford, and you from old Hillsboro and 
Cheshire, as you in memory do honor to your heroes of 
faith. We all join with you who make this occasion pos- 
sible in your tribute to the worthy forbears of Grafton 
with its North Country, a race who made this region a 
land of promise, and established a beacon-light at Hano- 
ver not to be extinguished. 

Far off, o'er wide Elysian fields. 

In joy beyond our mortal ken, 

Or on God's ways of high emprise, 

They fare, the elder Hampshire men. 

No longer seers with straining eyes, 

Vexed by a vision yet to be, 

Now in the Kingdom of God's love. 

As they are seen they also see. 

Their ample mantle on us fall. 

That we who serve eartti's latest day 

With widening view and changing phrase, 

Be to the vision true as they. 



^istoxk Mtttii of €arip Xife of 

Hefaanon, its! Jf irsit Cljurtl) anii 

^agtor, 176M817 



DELIVERED ON THE SPOT WHERE THE FIRST RELIGIOUS 

SERVICES WERE HELD IN TOWN. BY 

REV. JOHN E. WHITLEY. 

After the destruction of Louisburg in 1758, William 
Dana and three companions, Connecticut soldiers, came 
across Maine to the Connecticut river, designing to fol- 
low the river to their homes. In passing thro' this re- 
gion they found much to admire and consequently a com- 
pany was formed. 

In 1760 eighty-two persons, the majority of whom 
resided in Lebanon and Mansfield, Connecticut, associat- 
ed together and obtained from Benning Wentworth, the 
royal governor, the charter of this town bearing date 
July 4, 1761. That same year sixty charters were granted 
on the west side of the Connecticut river and eighteen on 
the east side of the river. The charter of Enfield and of 
Hanover, New Hampshire, is dated on the same day as 
that of Lebanon, and also Hartford and Norwich, Ver- 
mont. The charter gives these interesting items: The 
town was to be six miles square, and as soon as there 
should be fifty families resident in the town, they were to 
have the privilege of holding two annual fairs; and a 
market might be opened and kept one or more days each 
week. Every grantee for every fifty acres in his share 
should plant and cultivate five within five years; all white 
and other pine trees, fit for masting and the royal navy, 



40 MARKING THE SPOTS 

should be reserved for that purpose. Also for the space 
of ten years one ear of Indian corn was to be paid an- 
nually as rent, if lawfully demanded, and the first payment 
to be made on December 25, 1762. One whole share of 
land, about 338 acres, was reserved for the society of the 
Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts; one whole 
share for a glebe for the Church of England, and one 
whole share for the first settled minister, one for the ben- 
efit of schools, and five hundred acres for the use of 
Benning Wentworth, the royal governor. There were 
sixty-three grantees; and the majority of these were from 
Lebanon, Connecticut. It is interesting to know that 
President Wheelock, Dartmouth's first president, was the 
pastor of the Lebanon Congregational Church in Connect- 
icut, and that many of the grantees were his parishioners. 

September i, 1762, there was a committee appointed 
by the proprietors, composed of Captain Nathaniel Hall, 
Mr. John Hanks and Mr. John Birchard, to lay out a 
horse road from the old fort, number four, now Charles- 
town, to Lebanon. At the beginning of the settlement 
the country between here and Charlestown was not suffi- 
ciently open to admit the passage of a horse. The 
settlers came up the Connecticut river, and the first 
families with their goods came in boats from Charlestown. 
To Charlestown the early settlers of Lebanon went for 
several years for their milling. On one occasion, because 
the mills at Charlestown were not in running order, a 
Lebanon pioneer was obliged to go to Montague, Mass., 
a distance of ninety miles. He was away three weeks. 
His family concluded he was drowned. But the canoe 
came in sight freighted with the cargo for the colony, 
and the settlers had a day of rejoicing. 

The first town meeting recorded was held May 15, 
1765. In that first town meeting it was voted that a 



MARKING THE SPOTS 41 

minister should come and preach during the summer and 
that Aaron Storrs should take around a subscription 
paper and that the selectmen should seek quarters for the 
minister and provide for his accommodation. Ministers 
were called to labor here for a stated period, sometimes a 
few months and sometimes for one or two years. Men- 
tion is made in the town records of Rev. Mr. Treadway, 
Rev. Mr. Wales, and Rev. Mr. Niles. Since the minister 
was a town officer, taxes were raised for his support and 
all the affairs pertaining to the ministry were brought 
before the town meeting. 

The old burying ground was laid out in 1765. It is 
said to be the oldest north of Charlestown. The first 
adult burial was that of Mr. Oliver Davidson, and the first 
young man to be buried there was Mr. Ezra Perkins. 
The first male child born in town was Thomas Waterman. 
The first family to settle here permanently was that of 
William Downer, himself, wife and eight children. The 
population of the town in 1765, was about 150. The pop- 
ulation in 1768 was 162, as follows: 42 persons, males, 
over 16 and under 60; 50 persons under 16; married women, 
30; and unmarried, including children, 40. 

A new enterprise was engaging the minds of the set- 
tlers, the organization of a church. It is recorded that 
the six men of the organized effort were Azariah Bliss, 
Jonathan Dana, Joseph Dana, Zacheus Downer, John Slapp 
and John Wheatley. Azariah Bliss was from Connecti- 
cut, and became useful in all town affairs. Jonathan and 
Joseph Dana were from Ashford, Conn., Joseph being one 
of the grantees. Zacheus Downer was a public spirited 
man and later on was a soldier in the Revolution. John 
Slapp was from Connecticut, an officer in the French and 
Indian war, where he acquired the title of Major, and after- 
wards saw some service in the Revolution. Because of 



42 MARKING THE SPOTS 

his military knowledge and experience, he was of great 
service to the early settlers. John Wheatley was the son 
of an Irish surgeon in the British navy. Coming to this 
country while young he fell into the hands of a kind citi- 
zen of Norwich, Conn. Later he comes up the Connect- 
icut valley and settles here. By his native ability and 
education he developed into a town leader. He was the- 
first schoolmaster, the first justice of the peace under the 
royal commission, and for years was the legal adviser of 
the people. 

Such men took upon themselves the organization of 
the first Congregational church formed in town, north of 
Charlestown, in the Connecticut Valley, The church 
gathered in the presence of Rev. Bulkley Olcott of 
Charlestown, and Rev. James Wellman of Cornish. It 
was organized September 27, 1768. 

The town had not yet come to the settlement of an, 
installed pastor. Supplies were engaged. Meetings were 
held in the log school house where John Wheatley taught 
and also at the private residence of Captain Joseph Wood. 

The year 1772 stands out conspicuous in the church 
history of Lebanon. It was in this year when the town 
of about 300 inhabitants was ready to take definite and 
organized action in several matters. June 24,. 1772, saw 
the small church adopting as its own articles of agree- 
ment, a confession of faith and a covenant. One of the 
articles of agreement reads, "the constitution of the- 
church is to be what is commonly called Congregational.'* 
All this cooperative action was a preparation for the set^ 
tlement of a pastor. The records inform us that on July 
6, 1772, the church gave a call to Mr. Isaiah Potter to 
settle with them in the work of the gospel ministry. The 
ordination services took place on the- Eastman lot, now 
owned by N. S. Johnson on South. Main, street. West 



MARKING THE SPOTS 43 

Lebanon. As far as historical knowledge and tradition 
can aid us, it was on this lot of land on the east bank of 
the Connecticut river where the first religious meetings 
were held in Lebanon. Here was solemnized the first 
public wedding in town. Here also, August 25, 1772, Rev. 
Isaiah Potter, the first settled pastor, was ordained. In 
the open air, under a large spreading elm, a temporary 
platform was built and the impressive service was held. 
The visiting clergymen were Rev, Bulkley Olcott of 
Charlestown and Rev. James Wellman of Cornish, and in 
addition to these, President Wheelock, Dartmouth's first 
president, and appointed delegates from Hanover were 
present. Dartmouth College was founded in 1769, and 
Dartmouth College church organized in 1771. John 
Wheatley, Esquire, spoke in behalf of the church, reading 
the original invitation. It is interesting to know that the 
town in early days voted to give 1,400 acres of land to 
President Wheelock for use of the college. 

Isaiah Potter, born in Plymouth, Conn., July 23, 1746, 
became a student at Yale college and a fellow student of 
Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, under the theological training of 
Dr. John Smalley. Came to preach in Lebanon in the 
summer of 1771, and the following summer he was called 
to become the settled pastor. Two considerations in- 
duced to bring him here. Influence of Dr. Smalley and the 
acquaintance of Dr. Wheelock. Two of his brothers were 
ministers. 

The next enterprise was the building of a church but 
upon the location of it the people could not agree. But 
the pastor was now their leader and after the earnest re- 
monstrance of the young pastor, harmony prevailed, and 
it was finally decided to build the church on the portion 
of the field, west of the Luther Alden place, near the old 
burial ground, on the north side of the road. 



44 MARKING THE SPOTS 

October 29, 1772, at a church meeting legally warned, 
Mr. Joseph Dana was chosen as the first deacon, and the 
first sacrament in the town of the Lord's Supper was ad- 
ministered in the first meeting house on November 15, 1772. 

In this meeting house, which stood for tweny years, 
the early settlers met Sunday after Sunday in a simple 
form of worship, with Ziba Huntington as chorister, Joseph 
Dana as deacon, and with that earnest and faithful pastor 
known as Priest Potter, who, like Moses, was a leader of 
his flock forty years in this wilderness. The first 
meeting house was an old-fashioned building. 48 feet in 
length and 34 feet in breadth and the posts that supported 
the room inside were 12 feet high. It is recorded on the 
inside cover of the church records that the Congrega- 
tional church at West Lebanon was organized within lOO 
rods of the place where the first church of Lebanon was 
organized and within 200 rods from where the old meeting 
house stood. Joseph Wood, an old resident church mem- 
ber was ninety years old the very day the West Lebanon 
Church was organized, November 3, 1849, and was present 
also at the organization of the first church in 1768. He 
lived from 1759 and died in 1859 a centenarian. 

In the reading of the records during Priest Potter's 
ministry, one soon perceives that the church paid scrupu- 
lous attention to particular cases of discipline which re- 
sulted in some instances in excommunicating the persons 
charged with breaking a commandment or with a breach 
of the covenant. Several cases I will give later. July 24, 
1777, was observed as a public fast day on account of the 
distress of the war and the near approach of the enemy 
after Ticonderoga was given up. Several years pass by 
and the church votes that the Psalms be sung in public 
worship without reading but hymns for want of books 
should be sung line by line. The first chorister mentioned 



MARKING THE SPOTS 45 

is Enoch Reddington who was chosen to lead the sing- 
ing, and Ziba Huntington was the second chorister to 
serve the congregation. He was appointed March 7, 
1782. At the same meeting a Mr. Waters was called upon 
to build a communion table. On the Lord's day, April 
28, 1782, fifty-two persons united on confession of faith, 
doubtless the fruit of a revival led by the pastor who was 
regarded as one of the successful revivalists in the state. 
One may judge of the sentiment held by the good people 
of this town in those early years, from an item under date 
of March 3, 1784. It reads as follows: "Voted, that the 
church view it unbecoming the profession of godliness for 
young people, professors, to practice frolicing and vain 
mirth, likewise for elderly persons, to indulge in idleness, 
in foolish talking and jesting; and voted that they should 
set a watch about themselves and in the future refrain." 
After almost twenty years standing the old meeting house 
on the hill was partially destroyed and the timbers were 
bought by private residents, and the church was tem- 
porarily rebuilt near the residence of Henry Farnam. 
Says Rev. D. H. Allen, in a historical address delivered 
at the centennial of the charter of the town, July 4, 1861: 
"The fathers and mothers of some of us used to ride on 
horseback and in ox carts from the extreme north-east 
corner of the town to the house of worship, but some re- 
fused to go there and were accustomed to meet in the 
house of Mr. Robert Colburn, which stood near Mr. 
Carter's residence. Our records inform us that the church 
voted to suspend those members for the present who 
were active in pulling down the meeting house." 

The controversy of the building of a new meeting 
house as to location was finally settled by a proposition 
from Mr, Robert Colburn, who owned the land of the 
village, and who came forward and stuck a stake and 



46 MARKING THE SPOTS 

said: "If you will build the house on this spot, I will give 
to the town so many acres of land for a public common." 
The proposition was accepted, and the town meeting 
house was built in 1792, and it stood on the common till 
1850. Two hundred and four out of a population of five 
hundred were members of the church in 1784. During 
Priest Potter's ministry 372 names were inscribed upon 
the roll. The pastor was endowed with a splendid 
physique and possessed unusual strength. For a while he 
was chaplain of one of the New Hampshire regiments in 
the Revolution. He was in the army under General Gates 
and witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne, and stories are 
told of his strength and prowess. In mental power and 
grasp he was above the average. His ministry was 
crowned with success. Through his untiring efforts the 
church grew in numbers and had a great influence in this 
vicinity. After a long and useful life he died July 2, 1817, 
aged 71, having been connected with this parish as sup- 
ply and settled pastor for about forty-five years. His 
death occurred on what is called the Breck place, now 
owned by Mr. Wells. 

Lebanon has furnished some thirty candidates for the 
ministry, among whom are Rev. Samuel Wood, D. D., of 
Boscawen, Rev. Walter Harris, D. D,, of Dunbarton, Rev. 
Experience Porter, Rev. Story Hibbard, missionary of the 
American Board, as teacher in the Protestant College at 
Beirut, Rev. George Storrs of New York, Rev. C. H. Fay 
of Providence, R. I., Rev. E. L. Magoon of Albany, and 
Rev. D. H. Allen, professor in Lane Theological Semi- 
nary, Rev. Elias H. Richardson, Rev. Charles Cutler, 
Rev. William Searles and Rev. Joshua Blaisdell of Beloit, 
Wisconsin, Benjamin Wood of Upton, Mass., Rev. Elwin 
House, D. D., and Rev. J. E Ingham, great grandson of 
Priest Potter. From 1776 to 1861, there were fifty-four 



MARKING THE SPOTS 47 

graduates of Dartmouth who were from Lebanon, among 
whom were Samuel Wood of the class of 1779; Walter 
Harris, 1789; Joseph Peck, 1800; Experience Porter, 1803; 
Phineas Parkhurst and Constant Storrs, 1807; Ira Young, 
1828; D. H. Allen, 1829; Benjamin Ela, 1831; Benjamin 
E. Gallup, 1847; Elias H, Richardson, 1850; and Samuel 
W. Dana, 1854. 

Interesting facts are recorded about the building of 
the town meeting house on the common. The committee 
was composed of Stephen Billings, Joseph Wood, Daniel 
Hough, Captain Asher Allen and Samuel Estabrook. 
This committee reported December 24, 1792. The people 
had little money to give towards the building but they 
gave material and labor. Upon the subscription list so 
much mone)' was set down opposite each name, but it was 
paid by wheat or lumber or stock or labor. Among the 
many subscriptions we find the following: A yearling 
heifer, one yoke of oxen, two cows, a pair of two-year-old 
steers, three creatures, one gallon of rum by three different 
persons, and seven and one-half gallons by one person. 
These are novel contributions towards the building of the 
town meeting house on the common, but the people gave 
what they had. 

Another item of interest is the censuring of church 
members. What we now regard as matters for the indi- 
vidual conscience to decide, in those early years the 
town church decided. Here are several instances: One 
member was charged with raking hay on the Sabbath, 
which was to some of the settlers offensive. That mem- 
ber made a confession and asked forgiveness and was 
accepted again into membership. Another member was 
charged with gathering sap on the Sabbath. After mak- 
ing his confession, he was reinstated. The members who 
tore down the first meeting house were suspended and 



48 MARKING THE SPOTS 

the leader for this and other serious charges, was ex- 
communicated. Another member was laid under the 
censure of the church for his unchristian conduct of card 
playing. Another was charged with neglecting family 
worship at evening, and also for sending his children to a 
dancing school and for embracing the sentiment of uni- 
versal salvation, which was considered a departure from 
the faith. Not only the average member but ofificers and 
deacons and even the pastor were brought before trial. 
Good old John Wheatley was charged for slander, which 
was regarded a breach of the ninth commandment. On 
one occasion Priest Potter was charged with having prac- 
ticed extortion in selling grain at an extravagant price dur- 
a time of scarcity. After the usual investigation had been 
made by the committee, it was found that the charge was 
groundless, and Priest Potter was freed. 

Patty Hebard, Polly Waterman and Molly Estabrook 
made a confession to the church that they had joined in 
frolic and vain mirth at the wedding of Enoch Redding- 
ton, the chorister, and had also practiced frolic and vain 
mirth at the late commencement at Dartmouth, 1784. 
But the church records no case of censure of any member 
for drinking beer, rum or brandy. 

Mr. Downs tells us that the early laws concerning the 
observance of the Lord's day were very strict. Some of 
the provisions of the law of 1799, are the following: "All 
labor except works of necessity and mercy, all games, 
play and recreation are forbidden; all travel on the Lord's 
day between sun rising and sun setting, unless from neces- 
sity or to attend public worship, visit the sick or do some 
office of charity, is prohibited." If any person on the 
Lord's day, within the walls of any house of public wor- 
ship, or about such house, whether in the time of public 
service or between the forenoon and afternoon services of 



MARKING THE SPOTS 49 



said day, or any part thereof, did behave rudely or in- 
decently, he or she must pay a fine, not exceeding six 
dollars nor less than fifty cents. There was a provision 
in the law to this effect: "that it shall and may be lawful 
for any justice of the peace, on application, to grant a 
license for any person to travel or do secular business on 
that day, which shall appear to him to be a work of neces- 
sity or mercy." At the close of the act it was recom- 
mended to the ministers of the gospel to read this act 
publicly in their congregations, annually on the Lord's 
day next after the choice of town officers. 

The tything man, the parish officer, was especially 
charged with the enforcement of this law. The time 
when and the place where the tything man was most in 
evidence was in the meeting house galleries, during pub- 
lic worship, it being his duty to keep the young folks 
awake, but not too lively, and to keep them in good be- 
havior. The tything man often carried a little rod, and 
when a boy or girl became unruly, they were brought to 
order by a tap from the rod. Sometimes ears were pulled 
and not gently. The law requiring the election of the 
tything man was repealed at the annual meeting of 1845. 

One other item as to the growth of the town in 
population. In 1762 four men passed their winter here; 
in 1765 there is a population of 150; when the church was 
organized, 1768, there is a population of 162; in 1770, 195; 
in 1775, 347; in 1782, 500; in 1786, 843; in 1790, 1,180; in 
1800, 1,574; and in 1819, 2,000. 

Thus Priest Potter had seen the town grow from 
small beginnings and his influence and character was felt 
upon the whole life of Lebanon. His work abides and 
the citizens still admire him. 



I 



i 



Cfje j^etD Cnglanb Cfiurtij 
on tf)t ?|(U. 



ADDRESS BY REV. ROY B. GUILD OF BOSTON, MASS., MAY 

20, 1908, DELIVERED ON THE SPOT WHERE THE 

FIRST MEETING HOUSE IN LEBANON 

STOOD FROM I772 tO I792. 

The traveller approaching Gilbraltar, views with 
interest the rugged promontories of the European and 
African coast. He recognizes at once the appropriateness 
of the name of the gateway of the Mediterranean, the 
" Pillars of Hercules." As his ship approaches land, he 
discovers, upon each outstanding peak stretching to the 
north and to the south, a small tower. In the days when 
Spain was occupied by the Moors, these towers were used 
for the rapid transmission of messages, a sort of wireless 
telegraphy, smoke by day and fire by night, taking the 
place of electricity. The beacons on the mountains told 
of the advance or retreat of Mohammedanism. 

The traveller in America, beginning in New England, 
sees the hills topped by the beacon lights of Christianity, 
the Churches. The first, planted on the shores of the 
Atlantic, has been followed by others, reaching to the 
Pacific. The New England church on the hill tells of the 
beginning of a great religious movement and the others 
tell of the progress. This is the story we are now to con- 
sider. 

We have heard already of the early happenings in 



54 MARKING THE SPOTS 



this immediate community and commonwealth. From 
these records, we can gather the salient points. 

The land for the church was, as a rule, the gift of the 
town. It was centrally located and thus considered to be 
at the most advantageous point. The building was erected 
by public grant and private gifts in the first instance. 
The raising of the building was a great event, rum often 
being the most ardent spirit for the day's work. 

To secure the building was not always an easy task. 
There were stiff necked obstructionists then as now. As 
one of that period wrote: "The devil is a great enemy 
to building meeting-houses, and to the utmost of his 
power stirs up the corruptions of the children of God to 
oppose or obstruct so good a work." When they decided 
to build at Hadley, they could not determine on the loca- 
tion. The discussion lasted for thirteen years during fifty 
town meetings. 

At Mendon, the quarrel over the erection of the 
church lasted three years. One side, becoming somewhat 
wearied, was captured by a proposition adopted in town 
meeting: "To provide a barrel of rum towards raising 
the meeting house." We do it now with church suppers. 
After the raising, some person attempted to cut down a 
corner post of the frame. The town was in such good 
spirits that it voted not to try "to find out who hath, by 
cutting, damnified the meeting house." 

As a protest against ecclesiasticism, the building was 
made as unchurchly in appearance as possible. These 
buildings are known as the "barn-building" churches. 
The door was placed in the middle of the side and the 
pulpit was opposite this door, x^t each end were porches, 
by which the galleries could be reached. After a time, 
one of these porches was replaced by a pepper box 
steeple, which, in turn, gave way to the more elaborate 



MARKING THE SPOTS 55 

steeples of the Christopher Wren type or to double 
towers. 

While these buildings of the second period were not 
as beautiful architecturally as the old English churches, 
they were so constructed that the man preaching in them 
could be heard. This was of primary importance in the 
mind of those who scorned ritual and loved instruction 
in doctrine. 

The assignment of seats was a matter of great impor- 
tance and was attended to by a committee. In some 
cases, if a man did not like his seat and sat elsewhere, he 
was fined. No attention was given to the comfort of the 
worshippers, so far as seats and atmosphere was con- 
cerned. We might add to this, also as far as conscience 
was concerned, judging from some of the sermons 
preached. Near the church were small private or semi- 
public rest houses, to which the worshippers retired for 
rest, sociability, food and warmth, while waiting for the 
second service. 

The all important thing was the pulpit and the pulpit 
utterances. Upon the former, stood an hour glass, which 
was turned by the tithing man, as the running sand made 
it necessary, but this had no appreciable effect upon the 
length of the utterance. 

The minister, in those rugged days, gave positive 
messages, for he was one of a determined people to whom 
life, here and hereafter, was a serious matter. The theol- 
ogy was stern and rigid. It produced in the minds of 
men profound convictions, without which they would not 
have accomplished some of the good things that they 
did. The soul was a precious thing. It needed to be 
saved, it could be saved, and they labored unto that end. 

The religious work was the first interest in the meet- 
ing-house. But it was not the only interest. It became 



56 MARKING THE SPOTS 



the great politcal power because of the sermons preached 
and the meetings held therein. While the ministers 
wrought out elaborate systems of theology, which terri- 
fied the sinner and made the saints stand in awe, they also 
exalted man to that true level where he would call but 
one. Lord and Master. This meant the annihilation of 
monarchs and monarchies. The Declaration of Independ- 
ence was the logical outcome of the service of the meeting 
house on the hill. These same sanctuaries heard the call 
to arms in the early sixties, being among the first to echo 
the plaintive wail of the slave. 

Thus, for more reasons than one, we sing: 
"I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills." 

Today, there is no sight which lingers longer in the 
memory of the visitor in New England than that of the 
dignified meeting-house gleaming forth in pure white 
from its background of dark green foliage. How its 
story thrills the mind and heart and arouses us to desire 
the full fruitage of its early life. 

This, then, was the New England Church on the 
hill. 

What of that church today. Two things can be said 
of it. In the first place, it is, in many cases, the solemn, 
silent, forsaken memorial of a noble past compelling us 
to forget the error in the thought of the true. As I have 
gone from one end of New England to the other, a 
stranger returning to the home of his father, I have been 
impressed with this fact. 

Of the old settler, I ask the question: " What church 
is that so beautiful in situation? " 

" It is the First Church of P . It is rarely used 

now. It is kept in repair by the interest on $4,000 endow- 
ment. Fifty years ago, the great horse sheds were full on 



MARKING THE SPOTS 57 

Sundays. Pews and galleries were crowded with worship- 
pers. Now there are eighteen members, of whom sixteen 
are absent." " Ichabod " can be written over the entrance. 

One of three things has happened. The new gener- 
ation has moved away and the region is forsaken. Or the 
community has been repeopled by those of foreign birth, 
or, saddest of all, the present generation has degenerated 
into a stage of hopeless irreligion and moral destitution. 
There is more hope of filling these churches with the 
incoming virile foreign stock than of reviving this rem- 
nant. To be a missionary among such requires more 
courage than to go to a non-christian people. 

To make matters worse, this remnant makes futile 
any effort to rescue the new inhabitants or to dispose of 
the property, turning it into available assets for the 
denomination. The national council has asked the Church 
Building Society to do this latter thing; a reasonable 
request, but almost impossible of execution 

As concerns the use of the building, I visited recently 
a neighborhood into which many Swedes had moved. 
Our church would soon be without worshippers. The 
remnant, not like that of prophetic language, the hope of 
Israel, but rather the despair of Congregationalism 
refused to let them use the building. It was necessary to 
erect a new one within scarcely a stone's throw of the 
almost forsaken but very substantional old one. Such 
actions are not as rare exceptions as one might expect to 
find, judging from the experiences of Home Missionary 
Superintendents. 

True, Ephraim is wedded to his idol of independence. 
Thus, outside suggestions are tabooed, but let us try to 
create a public opinion that will make it possible for home 
missionary or church building officials to do what can be 
done to fulfill the plans and purposes of the founders and 



58 MARKING THE SPOTS 



builders. 

Over against these cases are those where a faithful 
remnant and a godly pastor are doing heroic and unself- 
ish service, seeking to stem the tide of worldly interest 
and vice or to make true men and women of the lately 
arrived pilgrims. Stand by your home missionary society 
as it stands by these, that the springs that have been the 
life of our city churches may not dry up. Let them still 
be the platforms of personal, social and political right- 
eousness as of yore. 

Again, many of these churches have become centres 
of our great cities, which are growing so rapidly that a 
westerner thinks he is at home in one of his own boom 
towns, I can only refer to these to remind you that some 
have been drowned out by the strange floods of life about 
them, while others upon these floods are fulfilling the 
mission of the church as our forefathers understood it. 

In the second place, let us consider the New England 
church beyond the New England hills. Last week, my 
work called me to an old Connecticut town. There I 
found a fine old brick meeting-house with a great white 
portico. To make the picture complete, a great dogwood 
tree in full bloom stood out from the side of the church, 
backed by dull red, surrounded by the green of spring-time. 
At the close of the service, I learned that over sixty 
years ago a young man, who had earlier joined this 
church, was here ordained. With his fair young bride, 
he went west. 

Six months ago, I spent a Sunday in a fine old 
church, high above the banks of the Fox River in North- 
ern Illinois. New England was writ large over the entire 
structure. The church was erected during the pastorate 
of that young clergyman, the honored and revered Dr. 
G. S. F. Savage, now of Chicago. The present pastor and 



MARKING THE SPOTS 59 



wife, most of the officers and other members of that 
church are New Englanders or their children. Some- 
where among these hills old homes are tenantless, but out 
there they are multiplying. These pioneers built first the 
tower on the hill top, where they have kept the beacon 
burning. Although many of these middle west communi- 
ties are passing through the experience of the east, 
because of the arrival of those from further east, the first 
settlers going on to the west and northwest. 

Out in a fine suburb of Los Angeles, I served a 
church as a summer supply. Its membership, growing 
and enthusiastic, was the off-shoot of the churches we 
have already named. The parent stock shows signs of 
old age and decay in spots, it is true, but it has seen well 
to its own propagation, save in one instance, the compact 
with the Presbyterians. That, however, has been a blessing. 
The injection of Congregational blood into that system 
has made it Congregational in local matters in practice. 
Its more central organization gave our noble-minded 
grandparents the opportunity to early plant a christian 
church of some sort. Denominationally, we do regret 
that 2,000 churches thus started are not to us a source of 
strength, but we can glory in their work. 

Today, our duty is plain. We are organized, we have 
our agencies. There are two ways in which we can accom- 
plish what the pilgrims left England to see accomplished. 
New Englanders, their children and their grandchil- 
dren, living in and founding these communities, must first 
establish the church or be traitors to our best traditions 
but we must supplement their efforts. 

We, who have inherited our church homes, can best 
show our appreciation of those who built for us by help- 
ing the builders elsewhere. Because our great-great- 
grandfathers deeded the land and our grandfathers built 



6o MARKING THE SPOTS 



our churches, we should do all the more for others; but, 
alas, this is the very reason why New England does less, 
along this line than any other. The average Congrega- 
tionalist last year gave only a cent and a quarter a month 
toward paying last bills on churches and parsonages out- 
side the immediate vicinage. They were born under the 
eaves of a church home and know nothing about the 
meaning of the want of such a home or the difficulty of 
securing one. Last year, our denomination jointly spent 
$287,000 in such work. New England, with over a third 
of the total membership, gave only a seventh of the 
amount. The hungry man is the first to share his crust 
with one starving. Let us do more for others, though 
not church hungry, being rather church surfeited. On 
this very day, your directors, seated in New York, must 
notify seventy waiting churches, in the crisis of their life, 
that Congregationalists would rather see them wait and 
even fail than part with a small amount of the money they 
possess. You may not have looked at it in that way 
before, but it is the naked truth. Let us at least show 
our appreciation, even if we are not strikingly generous. 

If we will build the beacon tower and the home for 
the kindler and keeper of the fire, the home missionary 
society will be able, with far greater efficiency and 
economy, to do its work, even to the retiring out of its 
decreasing debt. Shame on us for the retrenchment by 
which it has been decreased. 

As we place this marker today, we accept this fact 
that rebukes us. At the same time, we accept the facts 
that inspire us. By the gracious gifts of those who have 
been appreciating our common agency, the Building 
Society has made it possible, in the last fifty years, to pay 
last bills on a thousand parsonages and four thousand 
churches. With true christian business care, the money 



MARKING THE SPOTS 6i 



has been used to what glorious ends. In our common- 
wealth, we helped to build all but two churches. That is 
genuine Congregational fellowship. Let us multiply and 
magnify it, that in every unchurched community in our 
land, we may plant the church of the best type. The New 
England church on the hill, the social centre, the creator 
of public opinions, the inspirer of men, the true bride of 
our blessed Redeemer. 

Those, who are engaged in doing this, can sympa- 
thize with their fellow laborer of a century and a half ago, 
who wrote: "The devil is a great enemy to building 
meeting-houses." It is our business to beat the devil; 
more easily said than done. His satanic majesty does 
not engage a man to try his ax on a corner post, but 
makes of a possible pillar of a church, a man devoted 
only to business or pleasure. He simply chloroforms 
with indifference those who should be producing results 
here and there. And so the work languishes. The prog- 
ress of the church is no longer a question of wealth, but 
of willingness. There is enough wealth in the west to 
build the churches. Yes, and there is enough wealth in 
India to man our missions, but in neither case is it in the 
hands of those who feel the burden of responsibility. It 
is our sympathy with the loyal few that causes us to lend 
our assistance there. They and we must battle against 
the devil in his shrewd work, and so give the plant that 
will make permanent the influences that has enabled New 
England to put her stamp of religious liberty and politi- 
cal liberty upon all our land. Their very lack of under- 
standing of things essential should arouse us to do more, 
just as the sin sickness of the world had the compelling 
influence upon Christ that lead him to say " I must." And 
it is as his followers, I take it, that we are gathered here 
today. Thus we will do honor to the memory of those 



62 MARKING THE SPOTS 

who built the first church on the hills of New England, 
and perpetuating their work and bless generations un- 
born. Unto this end our fathers labored. Shall we be 
less noble, less generous, less christian? No. 



Historic ^potg as Eeminbetsi. 



address delivered may 20, on the spot where the 

first church stood from \']']2 to i792. speaker, 

rev. cyrus richardson, d. d., of nashua. 

subject, historic spots as reminders. 

Mr. President, Brethren and Friends: — 

We are living in a transitional period of the world's 
history. We are passing out of the old into the new, — 
out of old customs into new customs, out of old thoughts 
into new thoughts, out of old experiences into new 
experiences. 

Change is written everywhere, — in New England, in 
the Middle States, and on the Pacific slope of our own 
country, and in the old empires of the far East. 

A short time ago it was my privilege to visit the 
museum at Honolulu, where I saw a rare collection of 
articles which represented the life of the Hawaiian people 
when their country was a barren desert, — rude implements 
with which they delved in the soil, rude weapons with 
which they went into battle, primitive huts in which they 
lived. 

Then I passed out into the splendid city with its 
wide streets, tree-lined, its comely parks, its great busi- 
ness blocks, its fine churches and well equipped school- 
houses, its telegraphs and telephones and electric rail- 
ways; and I said: "What a magnificent change has been 
here wrought within seventy-five years!" 

A few weeks later, in Tokio, Japan, 1 visited another 
museum, looked upon a still rarer collection of articles 
which belonged to ancient life, and then went out into 
the spacious avenues of the great metropolis, profoundly 



64 MARKING THE SPOTS 



impressed with a similar contrast between the ancient and 
modern. 

Within a couple of generations that whole island 
empire has passed out of a state of semi-barbarism, and 
stepped straight into the forefront of the world's civiliza- 
tion. 

Go where you will today among the peoples of the 
earth, you will be struck with the fact of change. 

This change has to do with business methods, with 
social customs, with military achievements. It is seen in 
work shops, on farms, in school-rooms and in churches. 
Commerce, science, government, medical practice, and 
theology have been transformed within a century. 

And the end is not yet. Forward, is humanity's 
motto. Forgetting the things that are behind, and reach- 
ing forth to those which are before, we still press toward 
a distant goal. 

The ancient prophets assumed an expectant attitude; 
so did the apostles, so did the early Christians, and so 
do we. 

But when we pass out of an age, we do not cut aloof 
from it. A single event is not an isolated fact, but is 
connected with what has gone before and with what 
comes after. 

A single person is not in himself a finished product. 
A single generation is not an unrelated unit. 

As the parts of a tree are not joined externally like 
the timbers of a house, but have a common life passing 
through them to make them one, so generations of men 
become a single body through the possession of a com- 
mon life. 

Hence, as one writer has well said: "History is the 
story of the race and not of separate individuals. 

"It is the exhibition of the common nature of man as 



MARKING THE SPOTS 65 



this is manifested in that great series of individuals which 
is crowding on, one after another, like the waves of the 
sea through the ages of time. 

"The fact is that no one mind is capable of accom- 
plishing alone what the race is destined to accomplish by 
the slow revolution of the cycle of existence. 

"No age is historic by itself. Like the individual it 
only contributes its share of investigation to the sum 
total of material which is to undergo the test, not of an 
age, but of the ages." 

We who live today began our work where those who 
preceded us left it. We do our part, and pass the product 
on to those who come after us. 

This law of progress puts the treasures of all the past 
ages at our disposal. For us Homer and Shakespeare 
and Bryant and Whittier wrote their poems. For us 
Handel and Mozart and Beethoven their music. 

For us Raphael and Titian and Rembrandt painted 
their pictures. For us Washington and Lincoln and 
McKinley guided our ship of state through fierce storms. 

For us such men as the pioneers and early pastors of 
this historic church lived and acted and spoke. 

Whatever, therefore, serves to bring us into direct 
touch with men like these is of inestimable value. 

Historic spots have always been cherished as remind- 
ers. When the Israelites had crossed the Jordan to enter 
the Promised Land they took stones from the bed of the 
river, and with them built a monument to commemorate 
God's mercies. 

And Joshua said, "When your children shall ask 
their fathers in time to come, saying. What mean these 
stones? then ye shall let your children know that Israel 
came over this Jordan on dry land." 

When Jacob had his superb dream, in which he saw 



66 MARKING THE SPOTS 



the great staircase reaching from earth to heaven with 
angels ascending and descending thereon, and Jehovah 
speaking to him in words of promise, saying, "The land 
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, 
and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 
Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, and 
erected it as a memorial of divine favor." 

When in Samuel's day God had given the Israelites 
a splendid victory over the Philistines, Samuel took a 
stone and set it up, and called the name of it Ebenezer, 
saying, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." 

At the three spots at which the British army practi- 
cally failed in its first attempts to meet the American 
colonists in battle, memorials have been placed, first, the 
magnificent granite shaft on Bunker Hill; second, the 
stone on the village green at Lexington where a handful 
of brave men remained at their post; and third, the Minute 
Man at Concord Bridge, where the "Embattled farmers 
stood, and fired the shot heard round the world." 

New England is literally dotted with memorials of 
heroic achievements. During recent years the Daughters 
of the American Revolution have deserved our grat- 
itude for their erection of many commemorative tablets. 

Churches also have had a share in these attempts to 
keep in perpetual remembrance notable persons and 
places and events. 

Now these monuments are connecting links between 
the past and the future. They conserve the spirit of the 
days gone by. 

They bring that which is richest and best of former 
generations down into the present, and carry it forward 
into the years ahead. 

They show us our indebtedness to our ancestors, re- 
minding us of the priceless legacy which has been be- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 67 

queathed to us, and provoking in us a spirit of gratitude. 
They inspire us with buoyant hope, telling us that what 
has been done once may be done again, that former 
triumphs are omens of triumphs to come. 

They give us vision, assuring us that we do not live 
in one little day and place, but are citizens of the ages 
and the whole world. 

They say to us, Lift up your eyes, and behold your 
relationship with both the past and the future. 

They prompt us to renewed efforts for the good of 

mankind, saying, "Freely ye have received; freely give." 

Unworthy sons of noble sires you would be, did you 

not increase the legacy that has been left to you, and pass 

it on to those who come after you. 

These monuments cheer us with the thought that 
through all the changes that are taking place, there is 
something that is unchangeable, amid all the transitori- 
ness, there is much that is permanent. 

What lessons will your children find in these stones 
which we today dedicate? I mention three. 

The first has to do with freedom, — the freedom which 
has dominated New England life, and through New 
England life, has dominated our great country. 

Those early settlers said, "Neither kings, nor popes, 
nor bishops shall dictate our beliefs." 

In political and church affairs every man shall have 
a vote. The government shall be of the people, and by 
the people, and for the people. This is the choicest 
legacy which the colonists handed down to their descend- 
ants. That spirit of freedom has spread throughout the 
country. It has gone across the ocean, and awakened the 
people of the Orient. 

That spirit is today being proclaimed the world 
round. Men everywhere are saying. We will not be bound; 



68 MARKING THE SPOTS 

we will not be oppressed; we will no longer tamely sub- 
mit to tyrannical rule. 

The second lesson which your children will receive 
as they ask, "What means these stone tablets?" has to do 
with the nobility of sacrifice. 

Those men and women who here worshipped were 
swayed with a lofty purpose. They had neither time nor 
inclination for a life of self-indulgence. They willingly 
surrendered eas':; and luxury. 

They endured hardships; they faced perils; they 
stood fearlessly at posts of duty. 

Life was both serious and strenuous. The winsome 
graces of Christianity were not conspicuous. 

But the rugged virtues shone with unwonted lustre. 
The times called for heroic deeds. The spirit of sacrifice 
was wrought into the very fibre of our ancestors. Again 
and again, in seasons of catastrophe, it has saved the 
church and the country. 

The third lesson to be found in these tablets pertains 
to the doctrine of personal accountability to God. 

Those early worshippers who feared neither king nor 
pope, did iear Jehovah. His word was supreme. Their 
constant watch cry was, "Thus saith the Lord." 

The minister was regarded as God's mouthpiece. 
This doctrine made them fearless. "If God be for us, 
who can be against us?" 

It made them serious. If God looks down upon us, 
frivolities are out of place. It made them eamest. They 
felt that they were building for God and eternity. 

And so, my friends, we today dedicate these tablets 
to the memory of men and women whose names we 
honor, and whose virtues we try to emulate. 

Here they worshipped Jehovah. Here they heard 
his voice. Here on each returning Lord's day they im- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 69 

bibed afresh that spirit of freedom and sacrifice and ac- 
countability which they bequeathed to us as a rich 
inheritance. 

These tablets will continue to speak long after your 
lips are silent. Age will make them eloquent. 

For your children and children's children their story 
will always be fresh and beautiful and new. 



Ctie lapman'si ^art in 
€i)uvtf) Puilbing 



ADDRESS DELIVERED BY VVM, S. CARTER, LEBANON, MAY 20, 

1908, ON THE SPOT WHERE THE FIRST CHURCH STOOD, 

FROM 1772 TO 1792. 

As a representative of the laymen, I have been re- 
quested to speak of the part taken by them in the build- 
ing of our churches. The cares and activities of a 
business life, the application necessary to make a suc- 
cess of one's business with the sharp competition on 
every hand, do not prepare the layman to give as much 
thought to the spiritual work of the church as he ought, 
but when the opportunity is offered him to work in a 
way for which he is fitted by his every day business life, 
like the building of churches, he may be relied upon to 
come to the front and make himself useful. In going 
back to the early history of the world, we learn that 
when Moses wished to construct a tabernacle for the 
worship of Jehovah, it was the people who brought 
gold, silver, and purple and fine linen and skilled artif- 
icers, and workmen who wrought to weave and rear the 
tent in which the priests should lead them in worship. 
When the temple was to be built in Jerusalem, it was 
laymen, albeit kings, to whom the task was entrusted. 
The cathedral builders, the greatest architects of the 
world, have devoted their talents to designing and erect- 
ing magnificent churches. Bramante and Michael Ange- 
lo, the laymen, made St. Peters the glory of Rome. 



72 MARKING THE SPOTS 

"In the elder days of art, 
Builders wrought with greatest care 

Each minute and unseen part; 
For the gods see everywhere." 
It was Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of St. Pauls, 
of whom it was said, "If you wish to see his monument 
look about you." In our own country it was Richardson, 
the layman, who designed, and the business men of Bos- 
ton who furnished the means to erect that beautiful edi- 
fice, in which the memory of Phillips Brooks, the preacher, 
is enshrined. Our forefathers built no cathedrals, no 
Trinity churches, but the little white meeting houses 
that dotted our New England hills and valleys bear 
witness to the same religious spirit, the same self sacri- 
fice, the same consecration of time and talent and money. 
It will be conceded by all that the financial aid which 
laymen are able to give, is of the utmost importance to 
the success of the church. We are gathered today to 
dedicate a memorial to the members of the church of 
this town, who chose this sightly location overlooking 
the beautiful valle}' of the Connecticut on which to 
build their first meeting house. The appreciation of the 
importance of suitably marking every historic spot is 
especially noticeable in these days. I am reminded of 
another memorial which it was my privilege to assist in 
placing only a short time ago, in the great Mississippi 
valley to New Hampshire soldiers, who took part in one 
of the great battles of the Civil war. They were brave and 
patriotic, and earned the right to live in history through 
the dangers and sufferings they endured. The men of 
whom we speak today" deserve no less of us. They 
were men of strong convictions, and wise in their day 
and generation, for they early appreciated the need of a 
church, with all it vouchsafed to them of comfort, cour- 



MARKING THE SPOTS 



age and hope. We are justified in claiming that many 
of them were soldiers who had seen actual service on 
the field of battle, for among other names chosen as a 
committee to locate the second meeting house, we find 
those of Col, Elisha Payne, Maj. Nat. Wheatley, Capt. 
David Hough and Lt. Robert Colburn. The best sol- 
diers are those who place their trust in a Divine Being, 
and the most active and devoted laymen are those who 
have been preserved through great dangers. Many of 
the men of that day were like Peter and John at the 
beautiful gate of the temple, who when asked for alms 
answered "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I 
have I give thee." 

Mr. Downs, a former pastor of the church, tells 
us that their subscription to the church was paid in wheat, 
lumber, stock and labor, and that among others the fol- 
lowing were contributed: a yearling heifer, one yoke of 
oxen, two cows, one yearling heifer, a pair of two-year 
old steers, one yearling bull, three creatures, one gallon 
of rum by three different individuals, seven and a half 
gallons by one person. The time has long since past 
when religion expresses itself only through prayers, fasts 
and sacraments. Some one has said that, "The church has 
a new social consciousness; a mission to the community 
in which its lot is cast." Practical Christianity manifests 
itself in business ways. In the devotion of time and 
thought, and earnest effort to the successful administra- 
tion of financial affairs of the church. Church buildings 
are no longer the simple places of worship of former 
years. The evolution of the social life of the church 
calls for enlarged accommodations and where regular 
parish houses cannot be afforded, Sunday School rooms, 
parlors, and kitchens must be provided in the church build- 
ings. Here the business sagacity of the men and the judg- 



74 MARKING THE SPOTS 



ment and taste of the women is given full play. The history 
of the Congregational Church Building Society during 
the fifty-five years of its existence, under the leadership 
of its distinguished group of presidents, who have been 
clergymen of national reputation, has given the laymen 
the opportunity to contribute large sums for a worthy 
object. To this call they have responded nobly, having 
contributed for church and parsonage building more 
than five million dollars. The amount of good accom- 
plished it is hard to estimate. Most of this work has 
been done in the great West, but the East has not been 
overlooked, and in our own state many needy churches 
have been helped. Our attention has recently been 
called to the fact that in the back towns of our own 
state, religion is at a very low ebb, and the inhabitants of 
these towns are allowing the churches which their fore- 
fathers built to stand unused. Mr. Thurber of Uanbury, 
who has interested us so much in this subject, is not a 
clergyman but a layman, giving his best effort to settle- 
ment work almost at our door. He informs us that there 
is urgent need of this work in order that men and women 
who are now indifferent may become interested in sus- 
taining these churches. The church stands for the 
purer, higher, better life. It brings to us the only hope 
of a future existence. To be associated in the work of 
this grand institution, should be the aim of all who de- 
sire to make the most of their lives and secure for them- 
selves the promise of the Master for faithful service. 
May we be as wise to discern how we may employ 
our time and means for the good of others, as were the 
men whom we honor today in the dedication of this 
marker. We know not what the future has in store for 
us but may the laymen so wisely build, and the clergy- 
men preach that the churches may be adapted to the 



MARKING THE SPOTS 75 

needs of the coming generation; that the great princi- 
ples which the Prince of Peace came to teach, may be 
implanted in the hearts of all men. 






LEAp'IO 



